


For Better

by EllenD



Series: For Better or For Worse [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Epilogue, Ficlet, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1621724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllenD/pseuds/EllenD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An epilogue to the previous ficlet: Multiple Choice. Spock and Jim made it!</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Better

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who read the first story and took the time to comment! Here's the follow-up, or epilogue. Or, if you'd prefer the ambiguous ending better.... then I guess just ignore the epilogue. Enjoy!

Breath by breath, Spock floated back into consciousness as if surfacing from deep water. His senses didn’t return all at once. He couldn’t see at first, but he felt. Dull, thudding impacts that shook his body. A hard surface beneath him. A tightness in his chest.

As he slowly became aware of his limbs and their various aches, his mind unclouded as well and focused sharply on his last few minutes of consciousness.

_Jim’s form, bulky in his EV suit, hunched over the navigation panel as he grappled with the controls. His own numb and broken-feeling body strapped into the adjacent seat. A broken seat pedestal. Shards of metal. The remains of the bridge, blurred through the faceplate of his own EV suit, and the shimmering flames that were eating up what remained of the oxygen._

_Jim’s voice in his ear, muddled by static. “There’s still time, Spock.” His fingers punched in a series of buttons, calling up the schematics of what remained of the Enterprise. The forward viewscreen was dark, as well as half the monitors and buttons on the bridge. They were flying by sensors alone. “Get yourself to Deck Nine. Seal the blast doors behind Corridor A-1, it’s the least compromised. You can hole up there, wait for help…”_

_Spock didn’t say a word, but reached out and touched the captain’s transparent faceplate, right above Jim’s lips, in a half-Vulcan, half-human kiss. He smiled._

_Jim stared at him a moment, then grinned back, fearless. Neither of them moved, even when the final impact came and they were blown apart from each other in the concussive aftershock._

“Spock!”

His body shuddered. He became aware that the hard surface underneath him was the traction-rough floor of a rescue shuttle. He felt the subsonic hum of spaceflight beneath his fingertips. Someone was impacting his chest.

Someone else… or _something_ else… was touching his face with intermittent, _slimy_ caresses. Wet. Whimpering.

“Will he make it, sir?” came Engineer Scott’s voice and with the distinct burr at the end.

 “ _Come_ on, Spock! Wake up. Don’t you die on me, don’t you do it.”

Another impact.

“Captain…” he managed. Good. His vocal chords had not been damaged, though his eyesight had yet to return.

“Spock!” came the breathy gasp of Jim Kirk, filled with hope, elation, relief, and just the slightest hint of hysteria.

His throat scratchy, Spock parted dry lips and spoke, “You will no doubt find cardiopulmonary resuscitation ineffective, as my heart is not located in the area you are attempting to compress, but rather in the lower-right quadrant of the abdominal cavity.”

A relieved laugh from Scotty. A bark from the creature who was licking his face, which Spock determined to be Admiral Archer’s beagle, which Scotty had taken into protective custody three weeks ago when it had materialized on the _Enterprise_ ’s transporter.

His eyes finally cracked open, and all he saw was Jim, smiling softly down at him with moist eyes.

“You with me, Commander?” he whispered.

Spock blinked once, taking in his surroundings. Metallic walls. Scotty, smiling widely with a bandaged forehead. A few charred-looking ensigns who had bravely ventured back to the wreckage, risking life and limb, to rescue them.

And Jim.

“Yes,” Spock whispered back. “Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!


End file.
